Law and reality in publishing (seldom the same thing) from the author's side of the slush pile, with occasional forays into politics, military affairs, censorship and the First Amendment, legal theory, and anything else that strikes me as interesting.

14 May 2007

No Widows

The Ninth Circuit denied rehearing en banc in Kahle v. Gonzales, No. 0417434 today. The court's opinion is not materially different from its previous one, in which it said "This question was already decided in Eldred, and you can't relitigate it however you try to recharacterize the underlying questions."

The Kahle plaintiffs attempted to characterize the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 as an unconstitutional infringement upon their (the plaintiffs') right to expect certain works to fall into, or be, in the public domain, and therefore a violation of their First Amendment rights and an improper exercise of Congressional power. The First Amendment question is a settled question of law under Nation Enterprises. (Hint: Whenever someone asserts a First Amendment right to copy someone else's original expressive work, and that work is not that of a federal employee in the course of his/her duties, the First Amendment claim is at best extremely dubious... because "proper" copying is covered as "fair use" in the Copyright Act itself.) Eldred itself settled the question of Congressional power.

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Blog Archive

Warped Weft

Now live at the new site. I have arranged some of the more infamous threads that have appeared here by unravelling them from the blawg tapestry (and hopefully eliminating some of the sillier typos). Sometimes, the threads have been slightly reordered for clarity.

Other Blawgs, Blogs, and Journals

These may be of interest; I do not necessarily agree with opinions expressed in them, although the reasoning and writing are almost always first-rate (and represent a standard seldom, if ever, achieved in "mainstream" journalism). I'm picky, and have eclectic tastes, so don't expect a comprehensive listing.

How Appealing is aimed at appellate lawyers and legal news in general. If you care about the state of the law, start here — Howard's commentary is far better balanced, better informed, and better considered than any of the media outlets. To concentrate on the US Supreme Court, don't forget SCOTUSBlog.

Some academics' blawgs with a variety of political (and doctrinal) viewpoints:

The main European IP blawg of interest remains the UK-based IPKat, on a variety of intellectual property issues, with some overlap (with a less Eurocentric view) at IPFinance

The American Constitution Society blawg is a purportedly "liberal" counterweight to the so-called "Federalist Society" (which, despite its claims, should be called "Tory Society") that has yet to establish much coherence... but maybe that's all to the good.

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